Scribner Seminar ProgramCourse Decription

Extraordinary Bodies

Instructor(s): Susannah Mintz, English

Description: What makes a body “extraordinary,” and why do bodies that don’t fit established
categories seem to provoke fear, confusion, pity, or wonder? This course focuses on
the literary representation of bodies in some way disabled, disfigured, ill, or impaired.
Our goal will be to investigate what so-called “freaks” or “monsters” tell us about
prevalent social attitudes toward the body and identity, health and mortality, gender
and sexuality. We’ll investigate what symbolic meanings get attached to anomalous
bodies, and how have these shifted over time, and consider what happens when disabled
authors write their own stories. Reading drama, poetry, fiction, autobiography, and
more, we’ll explore the boundaries of the “normal,” and consider the ways in which
we are all only temporarily “able-bodied.